Drew University Hosting Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra

The Worcester Youth Orchestra, composed of high school students from Worcester, Massachusetts, will make its out-of-state debut when it performs at Drew University later this week.

The youth orchestra, under the direction of Jonathan Brennand, Drew University alumnus, will be performing with the Drew University Chorale and Choral Union at the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 18, at 8 p.m., according to Drew University.

The orchestra will perform, followed by the choral groups, and then all of the ensembles will perform together for “Te Deum in C Major” by Joseph Haydn and “Choral Fantasy Op. 80” by Beethoven, Drew University officials said.

The Drew University Chorale and Choral Union will sing pieces by Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, James Mulholland, Stephen Paulus and more, the university said. The youth orchestra and youth baroque orchestra will perform pieces by Rimsky-Korsakov, Vivaldi and Bizet.

“Our collaboration with the Worcester Youth Orchestras is made all the more exciting by the fact that their conductor, Jonathan Brennand, is a Drew alumnus,” Assistant Professor Jason Bishop of the music department said in a release from Drew University. “The music department and our choral ensembles are delighted to welcome him home to the Drew University Concert Hall stage for what I know will be a very special and memorable evening.”

Brennand both sang in the choir and played the violin at Drew University for four years and ultimately became the orchestra president, the university said. He received his master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Tickets for the spring concert will be $5. Student admission is free.